Army unit detects over 800 online items found to insult monarchy

The cybercrime security centre of the Royal Thai Army has found more than 800 online items deemed to insult the monarchy over the past seven months, from October last year to April this year.

The figure was released Thursday by Maj-General Rittee Intravudh, director of the Army Cyber Centre, speaking on the 16th anniversary of the founding of the so-called cyberwar centre.

Of the 820 items, 365 items were posted on Facebook, 450 on YouTube, and five on Twitter, he said.

He said the centre, in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Technology Crime Suppression Division, and the Department of Special Investigation had taken action and made these items inaccessible.

He said 435 items were successfully blocked and 111 items were in the process of being blocked while 274 items were new posts.

So far, the authorities have received good cooperation from concerned agencies to block the illegal websites following court orders to block around 6,000 websites, he said.

He predicted that the number of content deemed to insult the monarchy would soon be reduced.